The phony invoice scam is a common scam popular with scammers because it is quite effective.  It starts when you receive an email that purports to be from a popular company with which many of us do business that indicates that you owe them a significant payment.   The scammers count on people being concerned that they are being wrongfully charged for a product they did not order.  You are provided a telephone number to call if you dispute the bill. If you call the number, you will be prompted to provide personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft.  Here is a copy of the phony invoice presently being circulated.

This email appears to come from Norton, a company that provides a wide range of digital security services.   As always, the purpose of a phishing email is to lure you into clicking on links contained within the email or providing personal information, in this case by phone if you call to dispute the phony bill . If you click on links in phishing emails, you end up downloading malware and if you provide the requested information, it ends up being used to make you a victim of identity theft. This particular phishing email provides a phone number to call if you wish to dispute the obviously phony invoice.  If you call the number in the phishing email you will be asked for personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft.

There are a number of red flags that indicate that this is a scam.  Your name does not appear anywhere in the invoice.  Only your email address appears in the phony invoice.  Also, the email was sent from an email address that appears to have nothing to do with Norton.

Here is a copy of the invoice being circulated.

We tried to contact you on your registered number to inform you about the renewal but couldn’t get through. Your account have been charged for $539.99 and the amount will appear in your account/statement within 24 hours.

If you’re unaware about the charge and wish to cancel the plan and get the refund, please contact our customer support on +1 (877) 495-1031.

Thank you for your continued support and business!”

TIPS

Once, I received a large invoice from a company with which I do business for goods I did not order, but rather than click on the link provided in the email, I went directly to the company’s website to question the invoice.  When the website came up, the first thing I saw was a large announcement that the invoice was a scam and that many people had received these phony invoices.  If you ever receive a phony invoice such as this and you think that it may possibly be true, don’t click on links or call phone numbers provided in the email.  Rather contact the real company directly at a phone number or website that you know is legitimate where you can confirm that the phishing invoice was a scam.

Never click on links or download attachments in emails or text messages unless you have absolutely confirmed that they are legitimate and don’t call companies at telephone numbers that appear in the email such as this one.  Instead, if the email appears to come from a legitimate company, you can call them at a telephone number you confirm is legitimate .  Don’t call the number that appears in the email.  In the case of Norton, the real telephone number to call for customer service is 844-993-1307.  One of the indications that this is not legitimate and is a phishing email is the fact that the email address from which it was sent has nothing to do with Norton.  Also, nowhere in the email does your name appear.  Finally, the scammer is a bit lazy in not even including a Norton logo in the email which would be easy to counterfeit so even if an email carries the logo of a company, you can’t trust it.

For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.”  Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.

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